Highlights

CocoRosie Tour Europe, Hire New Mustache Artists

Best way to get me (or most people I know for that matter) to listen to an album is to tell me that it has been personally sanctioned by John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats. So, I figured if he was willing to give the new(est) CocoRosie another whirl, who the hell was I to write it off so quickly? Often, the true depth of an album lies within its flaws, and The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn is no exception. Is "Bloody Twins" (track 3) a phrase you're not totally comfortable with? Probably. Does antiquated, brittle warbling over a music box freak you out in the slightest? Shit, I mean, it should. But once you understand that these elements are as second nature to CocoRosie as the canned horse neigh that appears on most of their albums, you accept that sisters Sierra and Bianca Casaday just might be a little batshit. And that's okay. Because it's pretty and creepy. Mostly pretty.

The soundtrack to Downtown 81 (a.k.a., New York Beat Movie) was released earlier this week, and it features a ton of bands from the Lower East Side art scene of the late ‘70s/early ‘80s on which the film was based. The film features the late Jean Michel Basquiat basically playing himself as a young artist who is evicted from his apartment and sets off into the streets with a painting, intending to sell it for enough money to reclaim said apartment. Along the way he runs into a motley cast of characters, mostly played by key figures of said art and music scene, at one point featuring Debbie Harry as a bag-lady-turned-fairy-princess.

The soundtrack consists of an über-exciting array of bands, even including Basquiat's own band Gray, which also featured skeezy filmmaker Vincent Gallo. Other bands and people on the soundtrack include Lydia Lunch, James Chance, Liquid Liquid, Tuxedomoon, DNA, Suicide, Chris Stein of Blondie... the list goes on.

Going to one more show can't hurt, right? And while Vampire Weekend are decidedly not "punk rock," that doesn't mean that the track "A-Punk" off their self-released blue CD-R doesn't, for lack of a better word, kick ass (excuse me, but we can't all go to Columbia). With the sound of kids who used to listen to The Clash before they fell in love with Pavement, Vampire Weekend are well-annunciated, saccharine indie-pop with Ivy League precision, and they hands-down play my all-time favorite song about punctuation (as a writer, I have many). They've also succeeded in rhyming "Louis Vuitton" with "reggaeton" better than most bands I've been hearing lately.

Look for the oh-so-East-Coast's first full-length release by XL Recordings in January 2008.

But for now -- a tour.

* Celebration

# Mount Eerie

$ Grand Ole Party

% Grand Ole Party

! Friends of John (A benefit concert for the John Ryan Pike Memorial Foundation.)

As already reported, EMI/Parlophone is releasing a Radiohead box set consisting of their first six albums and the live mini-album, I Might Be Wrong, just in time to compete with Radiohead's independently released seventh album, In Rainbows (TMT Review). Sure, Radiohead has nothing to do with the box set release, but this isn't just a case of EMI trying to capitalize on the Radiohead brouhaha; it's also a case of ownership. EMI owns the "mechanical rights" (the reproduction of a song on a record) to Radiohead's first six albums. Furthermore, EMI owns the duration of the contract. Obvious, but compelling. And now that Radiohead is off the label and has long since recouped any expenses for it, the company is now predictably flexing its proprietary muscles, functioning as the major label machine that it is. Rude? Yes. Good business sense? Of course, and it certainly highlights a significant difference between major labels and independent labels.

But Radiohead won't have to worry about that sort of shit from now on, so long as they stay independent of this major label machine. For In Rainbows, Radiohead are simply licensing (through Warner Chappell Music Publishing) to other independent labels like XL Recordings and Side One/ATO.

Blah blah blah. Anyway, the new news? XL Recordings recently confirmed the UK release date of the physical (CD/LP) version for December 31, while "Jigsaw Falling Into Place" will be the album's first single, set for a January 14 release date. Now, I know what you're thinking: "But, but, I already bought the album and/or paid 'nothing'... XL is not going to make any money!" You see, my friend, you're totally forgetting about all the casual music buyers, like Ray Romano, who shop at Best Buy, Starbucks, Wal-Mart, etc., as well as the middle-aged, non-tech savvy consumers, like Carrie Bradshaw, who make up a huge portion of the CD-buying market.

Meanwhile, Radiohead's camp deny the legitimacy of any and all figures of In Rainbows' sales derived from independent companies:

In response to purely speculative figures announced in the press regarding the number of downloads and the price paid for the album, the group's representatives would like to remind people that, as the album could only be downloaded from the band's website, it is impossible for outside organisations to have accurate figures on sales.

However, they can confirm that the figures quoted by the company comScore Inc are wholly inaccurate and in no way reflect definitive market intelligence or, indeed, the true success of the project.

It's been rumored for quite awhile, but it seems like it's finally come to fruition, according to The Daily Swarm -- My Bloody Valentine have reunited for a new album and a possible tour. In an interview with Soft Focus, MBV frontman Kevin Shields claims that the next record is 75% complete, and that it "sounds like My Bloody Valentine." Isn't it strange when you have to point out that you sound like yourself?

Video site VBS.tv is set to debut a 30-minute interview with the elusive musician on Monday, November 12, where Shields discusses the new record. There are rumblings of a Radiohead-styled independent release for the new record, but this is mere speculation at this point. Some live rumors had been spreading like wildfire throughout the Coachella Festival fan community, who are already anticipating Portishead for the ‘08 version of the beloved musical stomp. The group has not confirmed any live appearances at this point.

So, wipe the dust off that Loveless coaster you have in your living room; it's time to get guitar-drenched!

Electrelane, the band who proved it's just as fun to shower with clothes on as to mud wrestle with your neighbor, have announced an "indefinite hiatus" from their website. What does this all mean? TMT has no idea. Check out their extremely cryptic message:

We have decided that the upcoming gigs will be our last for the foreseeable future. After ten years of much fun and hard work, we have realised that we all need a break and time to do other things. This was a tough decision for us to make, but ultimately a positive one.

A big thank you to everyone who has come to our shows, put on our shows, and bought our records over the years. It means a lot to us. We're really grateful to have had the opportunity to play gigs all over the world and to meet so many lovely people. This last year has been especially enjoyable and we feel happy about moving on with all these good memories to look back on. At the moment we haven't made any band plans for the future, but we're going to have a break and see what happens.

Love, Electrelane

Told you it's cryptic! Now, I can't confirm this, but seems to me like their message is a puzzle, as if they're trying to tell us something really important, but we have to "work" to understand the message. Speaking to my neighbor who I mud-wrestled last week, he thinks that "It must be a message about how they're going to release their fifth album -- I bet they'll do a Radiohead." Hmmm... I guess we'll have to wait and see if anyone can decode it.

In the meantime, expect tons of singles, albums, and tours from the one and only Electrelane!